Well....there’s a lot of topics in that seemingly simple question, and all the posts so far are good info. I’ll try to add.
First, as Zack said, you may need to evaluate your devotion to steel challenge. Do you like it enough to continue? Is it trigger time practice for other disciplines? Or is steel challenge going to be a serious competitive focus? Personally, I fit best in the last category with rifles, however I shoot USPSA rather competitively in the Open division with a 9 major Tanfo.
Shoot what you have with what you have first. If it’s what you are used to, you will have an honest evaluation as to what you think and feel compared to your previous experience with your known equipment, rather than wondering if differences in feel or result are from a recent change in equipment you’re not yet familiar with.
With that said, when I decided to shoot the open division with my Tanfo Witness, my first deviation was to use Winchester white box. My open load was just way too much for steel challenge in my opinion. My pistol has 2 barrels, a factory loaded round only (minor) with far less porting, and the open barrel with 12 ports. The minor barrel, even with less velocity ammo, had far more dot movement, obviously due to lack of gas through the comp. The open barrel worked quite well, however zeroing was needed. I found there was a significant difference in zero from my open loads to the Winchester. The recoil was “less,” and as you might expect, “different” from 9 major with slightly more dot movement. For me, it worked just fine. I shot a level 2 match with that ammo without need for spring adjustment. For me, because my main steel challenge focus is rifles, the Winchester was good enough.
If I were to become more serious about steel challenge open division I would begin load development with a 100 grain FMJ bullet. I think the 3N38 would be fine. Personally, I greatly prefer HS-6 for all things open. As said above, I would look for the 150ish PF range with focus on dot movement during recoil as the determining factor. For that matter, stick with your current powder load and just change the bullet, test to see where u are at - it just might be very close to the desired change. At this point, again, like all things open, you would have a very good idea of where you want to be with your particular equipment. The low weight bullet will allow loading for very little recoil with very little dot movement due to still working the comp. From there, move down in PF until dot movement increases or gun won’t function reliably even with spring tuning. If enough deligence is spent in this area, open guns can be made to run almost like its cheating. Nearly no recoil with nearly no dot movement. Just try to remember to maybe give a friendly heads up to the RO, those low weight bullet loads in open, as you may know, are super loud! ESPECIALLY through mine, which is already one of the loudest. Also, maybe check out Atlanta Arms, they make some 100 grain bullets you can buy loaded. Certainly not perfect for open, but to get an idea if you like.
Now, if you happen to be one of the many on the range with seemingly unlimited funding, lol....after determining your interest level, and finding a devotion to steel, a designated gun tuned to a designated load is in all our dreams. STI has a specific product for it as well if that’s your preferred company.
No matter what, absolutely come out and play. Steel Challenge is exploding and I absolutely love seeing more and more people of all levels joining in. Open has crazy peak times set by the pros, so it’s really cool to see where you stack up and chase improvement! Hope to see you out there somewhere.

I don’t shoot them, so all my info is second hand from the guys I shoot with and help. Apparently there is a strong preference of either the black over the clear, or could be visa versa, managing the spring, aligning the follower, and even wrapping electrical tape around the outside to maintain position in the magwell. My understanding is there are YouTube vids out there, but I haven’t looked since I was making the decision a couple years ago, and you my have to ask guys that use them. Wish I knew off the top off my head to be exact, but it’s just not info I use regularly. It’s out there though. I do know they are susceptible to malfunction when dirty and not fun to clean.

2 seasons? lol. You should get many years out of it, even at high use.
Passing on advice given to me, Eley Contact in the rifles is amazing. When I changed to it, I literally took 3 seconds off my total time immediately. You wouldn't think there is much recoil to a .22 rifle until there is NONE!
I have had 3 malfunctions in the time I have had the rifle. One cost me first place in a level II on showdown - it was a magazine issue. The second was the exact same malfunction, teaching me what happens when you wear out the 15-22 mags - the front of the plastic feed lips wears away, allowing the round to stand up straight and not feed. The third was a really weird deal where the ejected brass somehow bounced back in the chamber area and BEHIND the incoming round pointing up and down. Locked it up tight. Otherwise = outstanding reliability.
Chevy vs Ford...maybe. I think each have completely different "styles" due to the way the stock is made. The 15-22 allows me to stand up straighter and far more square. For example, on Smoke N Hope, I stand with both feet nearly side by side with maybe the right foot an inch further back, so nearly completely square, and let the hips/knees do all the work like shooting a pistol = upper body like a turret. With a 10/22, due to the stock angle and comb, I need to drop my right foot much further back and bend at the waist, leaning into the rifle. Perfectly normal shooting stance, just different than the AR stance. The shooting movement then tends to involve the arms and shoulders in addition to the waist and knees to move the rifle.
I think both rifles themselves are equal in reliability, its the mags that are so different. The 15-22 mags are flawless until greatly worn, and its easy to see when that happens cause two bullet heads will protrude above the lip entry. The 10-22 mags are greatly flawed, or at least greatly inconsistent, and for competition, you have to find ones that like to run AND tune them AND maintain them to get 100 percent reliability. Once you do so, the 10/22 can be just as reliable, just saying its a little more work.

NICE!
In limited, far and few conversations, I have heard people say the rifling and/or lands wear at extremely high round counts, claiming accuracy loss. Nothing lasts forever I guess, but I don’t think those concerns are something most us need to worry about.

Most of the trigger companies started redesigning their triggers when the PCC became popular. This is because on most PCCs the firing pin sits slightly higher. Some of the triggers combined with some of the PCCs experienced intermittent light strikes cause the trigger wasn’t hitting the firing pin just right. I experienced this when I put my .223 Gisselle in my PCC. The companies redesigned them to overcome this difference, but are nearly the exact same otherwise. Both should be of same quality and last just as long, respectively.

Alright, three things came to mind reading this thread.
First, anything requires maintenance and everything “wears.” If you shoot any rifle enough to wear it out, well, kudos to you cause you will be a champion and happy to replace it. I don’t think this is something to worry about. Now mags, yes, they ALL wear and need replacing, at least ones fit for competition use. I have some retired to practice only.
Second, someone posted above if you want to be serious about the sport you need to go expensive. If your wallet allows, by all means, sure. But under no circumstances is that true. There is some personal preference to what may feel good or point or move better for you than something else, and that should be the focus. I started this game with a S&W 15-22. Made GM in about a season and a half with it before even replacing the trigger. I’m still shooting it and now and it just has a trigger, CMore, and a comp invested, and quite frankly it not only keeps up with the several thousand dollar rigs, it’s been beating most all of them that come to this area, even sponsored ones. Even when the new, lower peak times come in January, this gun will be over 100 percent peak time. I’m not the best by far, but that less than 500 dollar gun has been getting it done for three years now with at least 2 to 3 matches a month and thousands of practice rounds. Last guy that smoked me used same thing straight off the shelf. Have been seeing and hearing more popularity with the 15-22 cause they just run and run and run. Point is, no, it is not necessary to drop the load of cash on a volquartsen. Again, with that said, they are amazingly well done guns. But no one who knows anything about this game is going to tell you you have to go expensive to get into this game, nor get serious about it. Only two things matter - shoots accurately, and runs reliably. The reliability is in the mags, and it’s good to point out the lowest end 10-22 and the highest end volquartsen run on the exact same mags.
Last, it appears you are from Atlanta. Steel Challenge is very established there and up the coast. Look for Steve Foster, he’s one of several champions in that area and is happy to help. Steve is from Atlanta too if I remember correctly and trains shooters in that area. There should be a wealth of info on the ranges in your area if you are not already involved.
Good luck. See you out there!

Was still one of best run matches even with the blizzard. Maybe u get even more help if you advertised the staff shoots in 70 degree weather and match is shot in 9 degree wind chill? Lol.
As for the rest of this, I think the difference in conversation is on the east and south east coasts steel challenge has exploded and level 2 matches are highly competitive. We have high level competition in our area, just not in the same numbers yet. You make a good point that the membership rule makes getting involved with more than a monthly match financially less appealing to new shooters who have yet to learn the “value” (as someone put it before) of uspsa membership. Most of the people you are talking to here can’t fathom a new shooter in a level 2 match, because that’s not what happens in areas trying to have enough spots for all the shooters where we are still looking for enough shooters for all the spots in our area. Your arguement makes perfect sense for our area, but is lost on the minds of people in other areas where competition is far more fierce. And then, of course, you are interacting with a few keyboard warriors here who I doubt actually even shoot ANYTHING, and if they did, I would love to have them on a squad. Show me the numbers you experts! Lol.